Ekrem Imamoglu was sentenced on Wednesday to two years and seven months in prison and ineligibility for “insult” towards members of the High Electoral Council. He announced that he was going to call on.
by Nicolas Bourcier (Istanbul, correspondent)
In Turkey the story repeats itself, and it is no coincidence. Wednesday, December 14, a judge sentenced the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu, a charismatic figure of the opposition and potential rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at two years and seven months in prison and ineligibility for immediate effect for “insult” to senior state officials. A brutal and unwanted verdict on the part of the authorities, which within six months of crucial elections, has the effect of a political earthquake. Its replicas and effects are incalculable both for the power in place and for the opposition parties in search of a single candidate.
From the announcement of the verdict, several thousands of people gathered almost spontaneously in the cold, on the great forecourt of the town hall of Istanbul, with the cries of “Her Sey çok Güzel Olacak” (“everything will be fine “), the campaign slogan of Ekrem Imamoglu during the last municipal elections, which has become the rallying cry of a laminated opposition which, until then, seemed to have lost all hope.
Above all, this gathering made it possible to recall publicly, by the impetuous voice of Meral Aksener, the muse of the nationalist right which says of itself “being the only one capable of scareing Erdogan”, that the chief of the state had also been sentenced “unfairly”, in 1998, to a prison sentence for remarks he had made as mayor of Istanbul before accessing the highest marches of power. A way to warn a possible “boomerang effect”.
race against the watch
For his part, Ekrem Imamoglu launched before the crowd that this trial “summed up the situation of Turkey”: “It started the day they tried to deprive us of our victory in the municipal elections of Istanbul, but They will not succeed, “he hammered, with his usual, calm and serene tone. He has already announced that he was going to appeal his conviction. The call will be suspensive, said one of his lawyers, which means that he will keep his mandate during the examination of his appeal which could take several months. The race against the clock is therefore engaged, between justice accused by human rights defenders and international organizations to be a political instrument in the hands of President Erdogan and the 52 -year -old councilor, given by all polls In case of duel between the two men.
Member of the People’s Republican Party (CHP, nationalist left), Ekrem Imamoglu found himself in the viewfinder of the Ankara regime after having inflicted his humiliating defeat on March 31, 2019 to the formation of Mr. Erdogan by winning The town hall of Istanbul, which had been directed for twenty-five years by the Party of Justice and Development (AKP). His election was first canceled by the power, forced to bow three months later in the face of the mobilization of the electorate who offered a wider victory to this opponent still unknown to the general public a few months earlier.
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